Kane County puts lawsuit in the past, rehires company
Kane County officials Tuesday hired a firm they once sued for installing a faulty roof - this time to find solutions to space problems at the same building.
In 2007, Kane County received a $1.5 million settlement with Wight & Co. and three other businesses for the installation of a lead-based roof at the judicial center that leaked and contaminated the ponds at the site. On Tuesday, only two county board members voted against a new $170,000 contract for Wight & Co. to explore the architectural and construction possibilities of modifying or creating new space to house three new judges coming to the county at the end of the year. Christina Castro and Bonnie Kunkel both cast "no" votes on the new contract, but not because of the previous legal history the county has with the company, which has offices in Darien and Chicago.
Castro said she feared the study Wight & Co. will conduct will take too much time, forcing the county to make a last-minute decision on a construction project with a potentially large price tag. Kunkel agreed, saying the $170,000 deal with Wight & Co. will also subtract from the amount of money the county has to spend on the actual solution to the problem. Both also said a study seems like a waste of time when the obvious answer seems to be continuing with the master plan for the existing judicial center and building a new wing.
"The problem I have with this resolution and this study is that it takes yet more time, it takes four months, and we don't have four months to waste," Kunkel said.
County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay said the study has value because it will give the county board an idea of what the short- and long-term costs of any space solution will be. Board member Gerald Jones backed her up by saying it's a recipe for disaster to proceed with any solution before having the Wight & Co. study completed.
"It's like buying some plans on the Internet to build a house and going to the lumberyard next with no assistance in between," Jones said.
Buries: Those who cast 'no' votes didn't do so because of past lawsuit